Almost another record-breaking year in Victoria.

2015 was the warmest year ever recorded in Victoria.  For most of the past year, it looked like 2016 might be even warmer.  The mean temperature in Victoria for January to November 2016 was 12.2 degrees, compared with 12.1 degrees for the comparable period in 2015.   That makes January to November 2016 the warmest 11 month period on record in Victoria.  If Victoria had just experienced average temperatures in December, then 2016 would have set the new record for warmest year.  Instead, December turned out to be one of the coldest Decembers in the past 30 years.  As a result, 2016 ended up being tied with 2004 for the second warmest year on record in Victoria, with a mean temperature of 11.5 degrees (versus 11.7 degrees in 2015).

Victoria still experienced impressive warmth in 2016.  That mean temperature of 11.5 degrees is almost a full degree above the 30-year average of 10.6 degrees.  It's also pretty amazing that we followed up the warmest year on record in 2015, with the second warmest year on record in 2015.  in addition, 10 of the 12 months in 2016 were warmer than normal, and we also beat a couple of monthly records: in 2016 we had both the warmest April on record and the warmest November on record.

The chart below compares the daily maximum and minimum temperatures for 2016 at Victoria Gonzales with the long term average temperatures.  You can see that for most of the year, we were well above the average.  Only in December did temperatures fall below the average for a significant period.

Daily max & min temperatures in Victoria, 2016

While temperatures were much warmer than average in 2016, precipitation ended up being much closer to normal.  Victoria had 623 mm of precipitation in 2016, just slightly below the average of 641 mm.  While the amount of precipitation was below average, the number of days with measurable rainfall was actually above average: 153 days in 2016 versus the average of 140 days.  The wettest day - by far - was February 15, when Victoria received a deluge of 61.6 mm of rain.  That's nearly 10% of our annual rainfall in one day.

The chart below compares the daily and cumulative precipitation in 2016 with the average cumulative precipitation.  You can see that we stayed fairly close to the average throughout the year, following our typical pattern of wet winters and dry summers.

Daily and cumulative precipitation in Victoria, 2016

Victoria typically receives less rainfall than surrounding areas, and in 2016 this pattern was even more pronounced than usual.  The chart below compares total annual precipitation for a number of cities in our region.  Compared with 623 mm  of precipitation at Victoria Gonzales, the Victoria Airport received 1006 mm - 60% more than Victoria proper.  Nanaimo (1370 mm) received more than twice as much rain as Victoria in 2016 while Vancouver (1618 mm) received more than 2.5 times as much rain.  Seattle (1148 mm) received more than 80% more rainfall than Victoria.  While Victoria was received slightly below average precipitation in 2016, all these other cities were wetter than average this past year.